Definition

One must make a distinction however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not poetry, nor till the autocrats among us can be “literalists of the imagination”—above insolence and triviality and can present for inspection, imaginary gardens with real toads in them, shall we have it.

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Sunday, December 11, 2011

A Mini-Challenge for Sunday

A Classic Hit...

I have been freshly inspired by several poems linked to our Imaginary Garden which have recalled the classics of poetry and literature. For our Sunday challenge, I have selected the Emily Dickinson ballad stanza.

Emily Dickinson preferred the structure to be found in ballads, returning to this ancient traditional verse form of the Middle Ages for much of her poetry.

Each stanza or quatrain alternates lines of iambic tetrameter (8 syllables) and iambic trimeter (six syllables), with an ABCB rhyme scheme. Dickinson's stanzas were not always in strict iambs, though she retained the syllable count, so do not feel daunted about checking to see if every second syllable is stressed.

Schematic:

xxxxxxxAxxxxxBxxxxxxxCxxxxxB

She often used slant rhyme on lines 2 and 4, rather than full rhyme, which is consistent in the consonants rather than the vowels. This can be seen in poem # 339 below.

Dickinson's poems might consist of between one and six stanzas and her use of punctuation was idiosyncratic.

202

"Faith" is a fine inventionFor Gentlemen who see!But Microscopes are prudentIn an Emergency!

339

I like a look of Agony,Because I know it's true -Men do not sham Convulsion,Nor simulate a Throe -

The eyes glaze once - and that is Death -Impossible to feignThe Beads upon the ForeheadBy homely Anguish strung.

449

I died for Beauty - but was scarceAdjusted to the TombWhen One who died for Truth, was lainIn an adjoining Room -

He questioned softly 'Why I failed'?'For Beauty', I replied -'And I - for Truth - Themself are One -We Bretheren, are', He said -

And so, as Kinsmen, met at Night -We talked between the Rooms -Until the Moss had reached our lips -And covered up - our names -

Emily Dickinson was in a class of her own; she defied convention and reinvented this form to such an extent that it has become recognizably her style. Is it possible to emulate her style without turning it into a parody? Let's give it a try today.

The link below will not expire, so poems may be linked up later in the week.

Kerry--I was NOT going to do any prompts today--but of course, once again you hit a nerve--I have an older poem in what I thought at the time was an Emily style(from 1986, yeesh) and have been wanting to shape it up forever, so now I'm feeling there's no excuse not to tackle it--it's rather long, so may be awhile before I get it up, but, poetry gods and goddesses willing, I shall return.

I'm having fun with this one, Kerry. I love ballads, and I've been laughing on and off all day about Dickinson's "use of punctuation was idiosyncratic"! Poem 449 is a perfect illustration of that idiosyncrasy. Wonderful!

Greetings to all poets, wayfarers and friends. February has long been a month of romance and is associated with Valentine's Day ce...

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